Belonging to the World

'Belonging to the World' surveys the treatment of women in American law from the nation's earliest beginnings in British North America to the present. An original work of historical synthesis, the book aims to build bridges between fields long thought to be unbridgeable - among them the history of women, American constitutional and legal history, political theory, and law. It delineates the shifting relationships between American law practice and women, both within the family and elsewhere, as Americans tried to implement republican constitutions in an emerging capitalist society without remaking patriarchal families and governments. And it uses women's stories and voices to drive home the extraordinary range and persistence of female rebellion since the 1630s; of particular importance are discussions of women's ongoing battles for freedom of speech and access to the marketplace.